Ramos daughter laid to rest

Manila, Philippines - Josephine Martinez Ramos, the daughter of former President Fidel Ramos who died of lung cancer, was laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City yesterday. She was 54.

“Sharing. Caring. Daring,” Ramos described his daughter before relatives, friends, and his former Cabinet members in a simple but solemn “sendoff for Jo.”

“She is now with the good Lord not because the pastor said so...but because of her good works. As you see in her tomb she is God’s daughter, a talented person, a beloved mother,” Ramos said.

He also challenged everyone to be loving, like his daughter. “This is the challenge to everyone. Will you go to heaven like Jo, or will some of you stay ‘down there’ before going up? This is the challenge to all Filipinos. Can we do it?” he asked. The crowd replied several times: “Yes, we can!”

Ramos noted the “veritable Ondoy of flowers” at the wake that he believes set “some kind of record.”

“Jo, you can now be a politician up there in heaven,” he joked. “It is only now that we discovered there are so many people who admire you.”

Ramos said what set his daughter apart was that “she just served” and was a “silent worker.”

Her sister, Cristy Ramos, said she secretly envied Jo for her many talents.

“We marveled at her artistic – not just musical – talent. She could design her own clothes, sew her own clothes… She designed our house in Alabang,” she said. “She was so flexible in the wide spectrum of the arts – heaven knows what she would have gotten into if she had lived longer.”

Cristy said Jo kept her condition a secret “out of her love and respect for all of us.”

Before the internment, the family held an ecumenical mass, attended by Catholic, Methodist and Muslim religious leaders. The Ramos family is Protestant.

There was no fanfare for Jo’s “sendoff” and her tomb was simple. The family sang songs as they paid their last respects. Ramos shed tears and kept his eyes shut while prayers were sung for his daughter. To his staff’s surprise, the 80-year-old former chief executive also joined the procession from the funeral chapel to the place of internment.

The guests and relatives were mostly clad in white. Ramos, on the other hand, was dressed in black.

Jo is one of Ramos’s five daughters with wife Amelita. She was confined at The Medical City in Ortigas, Pasig when she succumbed to lung cancer on June 27. She is survived by 17-year-old Sergio, her son with former husband, actor Lloyd Samartino.

According to the former President, Jo was diagnosed with cancer only last November but she kept it a secret from her family for eight months. The Ramos family only came to know of Jo’s condition five weeks ago. All the while, Ramos said, they thought his daughter was only suffering from asthma.

From the hospital, her remains were transferred to the Kamagong Chapel in La Funeraria Paz inside the Manila Memorial Park.

Jo was known for her talent in music. She used to be a backup singer for Gary Valenciano’s Powerplay band. Apart from that, Jo was also a bemedalled water skier. She was part of the national team who participated in the Southeast Asian Games in 1970.

None of the relatives granted interviews. The staff said the family preferred a solemn and private ceremony. “Although it is inevitable because FVR is a public figure, but they really wanted it private because Jo is very private. You see, they didn’t even know she was sick,” the staff said.